Kevin Campbell

[BiargeBob]

Passed away this morning.RIP

Saw him play for Arsenal youth against the Rovers. He scored 3 in a 5-0 victory at Old Belle Vue.

[drfchound]

Passed away this morning.RIP

Saw him play for Arsenal youth against the Rovers. He scored all 5 in a 5-0 victory at Old Belle Vue.

I think he (only) scored three times in the 5-0 win.
He didn’t play in the second leg and the game finished 0-0.

[Darren]

 I was there for the first leg at Belle Vue, the lad was awesome. RIP

[Filo]

Passed away this morning.RIP

Saw him play for Arsenal youth against the Rovers. He scored all 5 in a 5-0 victory at Old Belle Vue.

I think he (only) scored three times in the 5-0 win.
He didn’t play in the second leg and the game finished 0-0.

The second leg was 1-1

[drfchound]

Passed away this morning.RIP

Saw him play for Arsenal youth against the Rovers. He scored all 5 in a 5-0 victory at Old Belle Vue.

I think he (only) scored three times in the 5-0 win.
He didn’t play in the second leg and the game finished 0-0.

The second leg was 1-1

Was it, I knew it was a draw.
What about the hat trick in the first leg.
Campbell was the difference between the two teams over that final.
We might have won it had he not played.

[Champagne Super Rovers]

My memory of the youth cup game was that he scored 4 and was later carried off on a stretcher.  Which is why he missed the second leg.  He was bigger, faster and stronger than anyone else on the field that night.
Taken far too young.   RIP

[donnievic]

Passed away this morning.RIP

Saw him play for Arsenal youth against the Rovers. He scored all 5 in a 5-0 victory at Old Belle Vue.

scored 3 and ripped us a new one,was a man mountain back then compared to our youth side and was like lightning aswell

[steve@dcfd]

Yes saw him in that game we had a good youth side then and certainly was the difference RIP

[drfchound]

My memory of the youth cup game was that he scored 4 and was later carried off on a stretcher.  Which is why he missed the second leg.  He was bigger, faster and stronger than anyone else on the field that night.
Taken far too young.   RIP

Was he really carried off on a stretcher.
I don’t remember that, but it was a long time ago.

[mpc123]

RIP

He looked awesome in that game.

I think I remember rovers putting in a 5K bid straight after that game

[Campsall rover]

That Youth Cup Final only seems like last week.

He was the difference. He was just devastating that night.
Raven & Raffell who were 2 very good CB’s just couldn’t handle him and if my memory serves me right he scored a 20 min hat trick which won the Youth Cup for them. 5-0 at Belle Vue & 1-1 at Highbury in the 2nd leg.
Our team also included Mark Rankine, Rufus Brevitt & Steve Gaughan who along with Paul Raven all went on to have vey good football league careers.

R.I.P Kevin Campbell.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Passed away this morning.RIP

Saw him play for Arsenal youth against the Rovers. He scored 3 in a 5-0 victory at Old Belle Vue.

He was absolutely unplayable that night. We had a fantastic crop of kids, but he was in a different league.

[Branton Rover]

Remember him being a fully grown man aged 18 he ripped Raffel & Raven who were two good lads in their own right to pieces. He ran through them like a hot knife through butter.

I really warmed to him as a good bloke looking back on his career with the Undr the Cosh boys. He told a hilarious story about Brian Clough.

[roversdude]

Absolutely ripped us to bits in that game
RIP 54 is no age at all

[goalkick]

Best player on pitch that day. Some good young players that day.

[BillyStubbsTears]

https://youtu.be/ewodFf_iaqE?si=CThs6bg-cGJoiFRn

Looking back, he was the first of the modern breed of strikers. Built like a brick shithouse but lightning quick. Prior to that, most quick strikers had been slender and most big lads were ponderous.

Like Branton says, that night at OBV it was like a mester playing against kids. Put him in our side that night, we'd have won 8-0.

[Colin C No.3]

He looked ‘the full package’ that evening at Belle Vue. I thought we had (well, we did actually) a good side with Mark Rankine, Paul Raven, Steve Gaughn, Rufus Brevitt but he just ploughed through us like a 20 year old playing against 12 year olds. 7,000+ there that evening…….his evening.

54.

Life can be very, very cruel.

[Spud]

My memories of him were that game too. Like others have said he was unplayable, & then stretchered off.
RIP fella.

[Campsall rover]

He looked ‘the full package’ that evening at Belle Vue. I thought we had (well, we did actually) a good side with Mark Rankine, Paul Raven, Steve Gaughn, Rufus Brevitt but he just ploughed through us like a 20 year old playing against 12 year olds. 7,000+ there that evening…….his evening.

54.

Life can be very, very cruel.

He was only 18 maybe just 19yrs old

[PDX_Rover]

Yeah he was head and shoulders above everyone in that game, literally and figuratively. Total domination. OBV was packed as I recall.

The semifinal away at Spurs was fantastic.

RIP Kevin. No age.

[Pancho Regan]

This is such a shock, I can't believe he has passed away so young.

I share the memories already recalled in the posts above.
I remember going to that match against Arsenal at Belle Vue with my brother, We were full of hope and excitement, anticipation and expectation that our young lads would win.

Then this incredible individual just took the game by the scruff of its neck and steamrollered through our kids to win the game single-handedly.
I can see it now, the memory of seeing Kevin Campbell dominate that game is so vivid.

We regained some pride in the away leg but KC had already won the tie.

Cannot believe he has passed away.

RIP.

[Lesonthewest]

I was there for the first leg at Belle Vue, the lad was awesome. RIP

s

Me too, he was head & shoulders above anyone else on the pitch, incredible strength, man against boys. RIP.

[Draytonian III]

I was there for the first leg at Belle Vue, the lad was awesome. RIP

s

Me too, he was head & shoulders above anyone else on the pitch, incredible strength, man against boys. RIP.

As above, he was brilliant that night, made his full debut a few days later against Everton

R.I.P. Kevin

[Donnyjim]

Passed away this morning.RIP

Saw him play for Arsenal youth against the Rovers. He scored 3 in a 5-0 victory at Old Belle Vue.

I remember going to this game as a 16 year old. I always thought he had scored all five too. Is there any record of this game on the internet I wonder?

[Nudga]

He did score five.

I was blown away by him and thought he would be one of the worlds best.

[Butchers Red]

Very sad news, I cannot remember ever seeing a better individual performance against us than that one - how time flies, is it really that long ago !!

RIP Kevin

[drfchound]

Campbell scored three that day.
The other Arsenal goals were a penalty by Steve Ball and another by Ray Lee.
From the Arsenal News website:

1987/88

Arsenal 5-0 Doncaster Rovers

Campbell 3, Ball (pen), Lee

Doncaster Rovers 1-1 Arsenal

McKeown

Arsenal win 6-1 on aggregate.


It obviously has the home teams in the wrong order respectively to the results.

[scawsby steve]

From his old mate, Wrighty.

"Till we meet again, big man".

[jmt23]

That youth game actually got non rovers fans interested, in fact all my SUFC  dad would talk about for a couple of weeks was this game.

My god, Campbell was a unit with such pace and control. I can remember the fear, or maybe even the fascination from the crowd (and what a crowd by the way, much bigger than the full mens team got at the time!) every time he got the ball, or the ball moved towards him. It was a man against boys performance. RIP

[redwine]

That youth game actually got non rovers fans interested, in fact all my SUFC  dad would talk about for a couple of weeks was this game.

My god, Campbell was a unit with such pace and control. I can remember the fear, or maybe even the fascination from the crowd (and what a crowd by the way, much bigger than the full mens team got at the time!) every time he got the ball, or the ball moved towards him. It was a man against boys performance. RIP

If memory serves, didn't they get a bigger attendance than the league Cup fixture with Arsenal the same season?